Over my last five years working in digital (“peanuts”, I hear you elder statesmen mutter), I’ve gathered some paid search nuggets of wisdom to cherish, which will help you share a long and prosperous relationship with a client…
never have the limits of paid search been reached.
Every campaign creation or CPA goal, upon being reached, reveals yet another challenge. At no point in my career have I slacked back into my excessively-ergonomic chair and thought, “Done!”, “We made it!”… As a digital marketer, one must be riding the crest of the wave of frequent Google updates, releases & betas, to ensure accounts remain at the forefront of all that is at our disposal.
For example, this month Google Adwords announced an update to Keyword Planner to help compare your search term coverage to competition – for new keyword ideas you can review your relative ad impression share compared to the top five market leaders and similar advertisers in various keyword categories. These insights will help prioritise where keyword expansions could be most impactful, ultimately helping you to reach the next horizon. Keep your ears to the street!
Passion exists in all searches
Advertisers can forget the humanity behind a search, serving ads down consumers’ throats (“Spend everything you own plus your mortgage HERE”). Sure, we all love good deals, but the art of writing ad copy for humans can be forgotten in the hurly burly of competition. Bold ad copy with a human feel can resonate far greater (and outperform) those generic run-of-the-mill shipping messages you’ll see everywhere – “Free shipping to the UK” could be “Free shipping, right to your front door”. Know your audience, for they are human, and write for them, to them, accordingly.
Channel your hard graft to the right areas
When you are in the trenches of your account day in day out, digging through SQRs and rationing budgets, you must have the ability to haul yourself out to see the wider picture. It’s hard to see what’s really going on sometimes, and without regularly auditing your PPC account, you never know if you are missing out on opportunities or leaking money. The overarching key metrics upon which your account’s “success” usually hinge (revenue/CPA/ROI goals) are dependent on many variables, and one must be ready to apply the hours of graft and spadework in the right places to ensure the account is progressing.
Reviewing keywords that cost money, but do not convert, is obviously essential – there can be tell-tale signs that certain keywords you thought initially relevant to the account, are actually redundant (e.g. high bounce rates, due to irrelevance or lack of options for the visitor). Another area to help foster a healthy PPC account is the continual assessment of the impact of match types – and how they are separated in an account structure – alongside auditing ads and ad extensions for maximum traffic and coverage.
Immerse yourself in the client’s world
If you cannot get under the skin of a brand, client or company, it will be to the detriment of your account. Seek to understand the site’s workings, show a passion for the products or services on offer (even if it’s a company selling spilt milk) and get a picture of the unique pressures client-side to ensure requirements and demands you ask as an agency are not wildly unrealistic.